Home Remedies - Part Four

Whether it's grandpa's secret recipe for a hot toddy, or Uncle Bob's sure fire cure for the hiccups, home remedies have been around for a long time. Between the rising cost of medicine and the length of the lines in the waiting rooms, more and more people are turning to home remedies for their minor illnesses. This series is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to home remedies. It should go without saying that the remedies in this series are for entertainment purposes only.

Gather plenty of turds from the wild jack rabbit and dry them in the oven to keep in a jar. When a fever will not totally break, make a very strong tea of the dung and hot water. Strain it and drink it every half hour until the sweating starts. This never fails. – Texas Remedies

Create an infusion by covering one ounce of dried yarrow with a quart of boiling water. After 4 hours, strain the infusion. The infusion may be sipped as tea. Alternatively, yarrow tea may be made by steeping 1-2 teaspoons of the dried herb in one cup boiling water. Drink three times daily.

Tea bags with lemon and ginger are commercially availabl. Steep according to package directions and drink as needed. To make your own, grate 3 teaspoons of fresh ginger and steep in one cup boiling water. Strain and add lemon to taste (honey may also be added for flavor.)

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds, steep for 5 minutes, and drink.

Soak 25 raisins in 1/2 cup of water. Crush the raisins in the water and strain. Add 1/2 teaspoon of lime juice to the water and drink 2 times a day.

If you're over 21, enjoy a hot toddy made by adding honey, lemon, and whiskey to hot water.

To Break a Fever, catch a grand daddy spider; pull its legs off and swallow it whole and alive. – North Carolina Folk Remedy

Apply sandalwood paste on forehead.

Slice a potato, soak the slices in vinegar for 10 minutes, and (while lying down) place the slices on your forehead with a washcloth on top. This should lower your fever in 20-30 minutes.

Dip a washcloth in a bowl of 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar, wring it out, and apply to your forehead.

Take a bath in 4-5 gallons of room temperature water mixed with the juice of about 8-10 limes.

Add 1/2 cup of vinegar to lukewarm bath water and soak for 5-10 minutes.

For Fevers: Write upon three almond kernels the following words and take them three mornings in succession: Hasta, Hava, Shaver. Then purchase five cents worth of camphor and make small lozenges from it, and suspend these from your neck. Leave them three days and three nights in that position and remove them at the same hour of the day that they were fastened to the body. – Albertus Magnus or Egyptian Secrets

Soak two washcloths in egg whites, put on the soles of your feet, and cover with socks. Egg whites are by far the best method to lower a high temperature within minutes. The egg whites instantaneously start to draw the temperature down from the brain (where it is dangerous) to the feet (where it can do no damage).

Place a slice of raw onion on the bottom of each foot and wrap your feet in a warm blanket. It works when the onion turns brown it means your fever is gone.

Warm a mixture of 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 large crushed garlic cloves. Apply the mixture under the sole of each foot, wrap each foot with plastic, and keep on for the night. Olive oil and garlic are both wonderful home remedies for fever.

It's simple.... take a pair of socks, soak them (I mean SOAK them... like in a sink) in regular white vinegar, then put them your feet. Be sure to monitor the temperature WHILE the socks are on. It will drop in seconds.

Tie a bag containing the suffer’s nail paring to a live eel. It will carry the fever away. – Appalachian Folk Remedy

First you boil an egg or two until it's done, and you take the shell off (quickly, because the heat will escape. You need a hot egg for this to work, not a warm one), stick a coin in it (a coin made of real silver is best), and wrap it in a cloth. Then rub that rigorously over the forehead, chest, stomach, and back (this will burn, because the egg is really hot) until the egg becomes warm. When you take the silver coin out, it should have become dark because the egg 'captured' the sickness from the body. Repeat one or two more times, and you should feel better instantly.

Mix lime and olive oil together then apply it all over the body from head to toe.

Rub the juice of about 3 limes over your body.

Put twelve red ants or wood lice in a little bag and tie it around your neck. – Texas Remedies